I always wanted a colnago. I like a lot of the steel Italian bikes. But now that Carbon has taken over has the innovation also started to shift? I'm no expert by any means, but it looks like Germany is leading the way with a lot of the newest and lightest bikes and parts.

It would be interesting to hear who sells the most quality mid market bikes. I agree Cannondale and Specialized have to be up there. The sort of bike I guess most of us WW users buy.

Having said that I think Germany have to be industry leaders in the top end market. For me anyway. My money not a major issue build is almost exclusively German. Frame, fork, wheels, bar, stem, seatpost, and saddle are all from Germany. I chose the parts because for me they are the best, not because they are German.

If it comes to industry leader in bikes I would say USA, with brands like Cannondale, Scott and Specialized.

Was not a German (Denk) responsible for the engineering on many of Scott and then Cannondale's recent bikes? I think Germany is in this position because of a strong attitude towards engineering, and an education system to support it, but I guess more importantly the right economic environment for a lot of these smaller specialised firms to prosper.

There's no doubting that German engineering is exceptional and always has been. I think that you have to remember we are in a global market now and parts manufactured in a certain country may not be 'of' that country. A typical example is F1. Many of the F1 teams are UK based but I'll bet that the employees are from many countries. With bikes most of the major brands will have multi national employees. The high end parts are still predominantly German made, but the bikes they will be on will no doubt have parts from all over the world. I really don't think that you can say that any one country is a world leader. For me, the most innovative current product is Sram XX1. That'll be the USA then...

It depends on how you define 'industry leader'. Are we talking volume or best quality or something else. By best quality I mean best combination of weight, stiffness, function and durability. If you want these qualities it's very hard to avoid German.

( I just remembered I am using one other non German part on my build other than core groupset. It's Fibrelyte chainrings. For me they have the best combination of above stated qualities available. And well priced too, unlike the German stuff.)

There's no doubting that German engineering is exceptional and always has been. I think that you have to remember we are in a global market now and parts manufactured in a certain country may not be 'of' that country. A typical example is F1. Many of the F1 teams are UK based but I'll bet that the employees are from many countries. With bikes most of the major brands will have multi national employees. The high end parts are still predominantly German made, but the bikes they will be on will no doubt have parts from all over the world. I really don't think that you can say that any one country is a world leader. For me, the most innovative current product is Sram XX1. That'll be the USA then...

Meeec! Sram an.American company, but the XX1 was d Ooo eveloped im Germany, in Schweinfurt, were Sachs was based.

This has no bias at all except for the fact you own a wilier and colnago right?

I can see this post becoming nationalistic and self-righteous.

_________________I never took drugs to improve my performance at any time. I will be willing to stick my finger into a polygraph test if anyone with big media pull wants to take issue. If you buy a signed poster now it will not be tarnished later. --Graeme Obree

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